Choosing our Home
by KeepCalmFanFicExists
Summary: A few days before Christmas Andromeda has some news regarding her holiday plans that her older sister finds disturbing and seeks someone else's company right away. Maybe this is the turning point for both sisters.


_Written for the first challenge of the Plot Bunnies HQ Forum. The prompts to be used were "I do not want or need your permission", "days", "jumped", "candle". _

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter does not belong to me, no. _

_For the Quest of Home._

"Andy-Andy, you can't be serious!" cried Bellatrix.

She had been sitting on the best armchair in front of the fire in the Slytherin Common Room debating whether she should study for the DADA exam or not. The stuff was ridiculously easy, but last time she had scared the pathetic-excuse-for-a-professor with some of her comments on the uses of freezing charms. But what did she expect from someone who wore a _lace _collar while teaching... She had started forming a plan on what to write at the exam, when her sister had calmly announced she would be spending four days of the Christmas holidays with Theodore Tonks' family. Bellatrix had choked on her own saliva.

Through coughs and watery eyes she tried to focus on her little sister. Andromeda was standing in front of her stiffly, nothing like her usual bubbly, careless self. Her braid for once was tied back in a neat plait and not let free to frizz wildly and her socks were high and clean. She had obviously been planning for this. And that could only mean one thing: she was dead serious.

"Sure I am," Andromeda said politely, "It's not like it will bother anyone, Cissy won't be home, mother never fancied having me around anyway and you'll still be able to lock yourself in your room and study and play your violin and write your secret-secret letters and-"

"Yes, I got that. You think that no one cares for you in the house, so you decided to do the only thing that will guarantee you attention for the next year. Very clever. Do you realize what consequences it will have on you?" Bellatrix hissed in an effort to keep the argument private.

"I get to spend some time with a friend whose parents will actually be happy to see him," Andromeda said and when Bellatrix snorted sarcastically she continued as dignified as she could: "We _are_ just friends."

"That's how the cool kids call it now? Friends?"

"Like you'd know anything about that," Andromeda hissed back in a hurtful tone. Her sister didn't seem to mind though. She only turned to the few students who were in the Common Room, mainly other sixth-years studying for the DADA exam and ordered: "Get out."

They didn't have to be told twice. They knew that serving detention assigned by Bellatrix would be far from pleasant, so they practically fled the room for dear life. They were Slytherins after all.

When the Entrance was a wall again Bellatrix focused her attention back to her sister.

"I may not know much about friendship, but I do know how politics work, Andy. You go to that house for a few days, you come back for the Christmas Party that just happens to be hosted by our family and the Tonks believe they are one of us after that, maybe they'll keep an eye on you. Today four days at Christmas, tomorrow summer holidays with your kids to the Grandparents!"

"I told you, it's not like that!" yelled Andromeda loudly, stamping her foot on the hard stone of the floor.

Bellatrix returned a cold look. "Maybe it's not for you, it is for them, though. Muggles who want to be accepted in our community find it a good idea marrying people like us. They think we are," she wrinkled her nose delicately, "royalty."

"Yeah, like we would be welcomed back after such a marriage!"

Bellatrix' eyes darkened while a cruel smirk twisted her lips.

"I don't know, maybe you will, mother seems to like you enough. You weren't the one who was getting beaten up, that's for sure."

While Andromeda had been talking in higher and higher tones as the conversation moved on, her sister had said those words almost in a whisper. Andromeda cast her a worried look. She seemed oddly frightening, slender in the vast velvet green armchair, her shoulders raised so that both arms were gripping the fabric tightly. Bellatrix had always been very pretty, even as a child comments on her appearance were constant. But as she grew older and matured, her precious good looks gave her a dangerous aura. She found herself avoiding those piercing eyes where blue flames were dancing. Suddenly Andromeda didn't feel safe in the room alone with her. What an awful thing to feel...

"Anyway, I do not want or need your approval, I'm doing it. I was just letting you know," she concluded hoping her voice wasn't shaking and she sounded convincingly confident. With a dramatic pirouette she turned on her heel and left, secretly wishing her sister wouldn't curse her from behind.

Bellatrix, on the other hand, remained completely still as she watched her sister's back disappear from the wall. She kept this illusion of calmness for a minute, only her turbulent eyes betraying her rage, and then a sickening crack echoed in the dungeons and water started pouring from the window. Bellatrix was gone the next moment rushing to the first floor, a firm grip on her wand.

Five minutes later and six hundred kilometers away she jumped out of the Vanishing Cabinet of her family's house at Grimmauld Place. The urban house was the residence of her Aunt and Uncle, but they were sleeping deeply now, like every time she would use the transportation device to leave the school in the middle of the night. The house-elf was in upper floors cleaning to keep her mysophobic aunt quiet. Walking on the tip of her toes with difficulty as she was raging, she passed the hallway with the heads of Kreacher's ancestors, opened the door to the well-kept gardens of the square and Apparated.

The next second she was standing outside a simple old door that hid an apartment in some infamous London neighborhood. Bellatrix took a couple of deep breaths to both calm her anger and nerves on meeting the owner of the place and knocked.

The door creaked open almost instantly and a tall man with an extremely pale complexion and an absolutely expressionless face was standing on the doorway. He didn't show surprise for the late-night visitor, just raised a thin elegant eyebrow.

"Bellatrix," Voldemort said quietly, "to what do I owe this honour?"  
>Bellatrix swallowed with difficulty, apparently for a moment forgetting why she had done all this trip.<p>

"Could I come in? I know it's late, but-"

"Of course." He stepped aside so that she could come inside to what seemed like an incredibly full library and tiny house at the same time. Bellatrix had come here plenty of times, some of them later than that night and it was always the same. It had no windows as the bookcases covered not only the walls but the ceiling also, held by invisible bonds upside down over their heads, their capacity magically enhanced. Books were lying on the floor and tables too, all in neat piles, only disturbed by leather notebooks and scrolls of parchment here and there. The door at the end of the living room led to an even smaller bedroom which too had books everywhere, even on the hard white mattress.

Voldemort caught her eye looking at the bedroom.

"You are quite lucky, I could have gone to bed given the time," he commented, a tiny bit of sarcasm in his words.

Bellatrix couldn't help but smile, ignoring for a second her anger.

"I considered that," she agreed, "then I decided that there was very little chance the world would end today, so I tried and here I am."

"I can sense a bit of desperation there?" Voldemort returned not very kindly.

He was still in his suit and tie working late hours on his latest plan or magic, she could see the candle on the desk that had almost melted down surrounded by at least seven books, many inkpots and a cascade of notes in elegant writing. All this left her sad and empty all of a sudden, her anger extinguished. Bellatrix turned her gaze back to the apartment. It was so very different to what she was used to, simple, with not a single decoration, small and crumbled, yet sparkling clean. Dark and naked and full of knowledge. Just like him. The odd feeling intensified itself when she saw the old leather couch. The memories...

"I just wanted to come home."

_A/N: Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think._

_Indeed Scotland is around 600-650 kilometers away from London._


End file.
